students

Do you enjoy building things, creating art, learning new skills, communicating ideas, solving problems or coming up with a plan? Then Summer SPARK! is for you! This experience is being modeled on the huge success of the SPARK! Hackathon. ​

"I participated in the SPARK! Hackathon and it was a blast. The classes were informative. Looking back, it was a lot of fun collaborating with others at the hackathon to build technology to solve community issues."

"After attending SPARK! last year, I came away with a feeling of accomplishment and excitement about all the new things I'd learned."

"The experience last year changed my life. In summary, my group and I designed a fall proof walker, inspired by my grandfather's mobility issues. However, this design did not stay just as a design. After the hackathon, two of my group members and I decided to further test this concept. So we built a fully working prototype of our fall proof walker and presented it at the Tom Tom Festival. This was a massive success among those who viewed our innovation. It was such a success, in fact, that I wrote about it in my Common Application essay while applying to colleges, and I have already gotten into one of my dream schools for their engineering program."​

"Participating in the SPARK! Hackathon was everything I expected it to be... and more! It was so cool meeting high schoolers and adults who were just as passionate about STEM and as excited to participate in the hackathon experience."

This summer we are offering 3 SPARK! Summer Programs. No experience is required for SPARK! Summer and we encourage students with a wide variety of backgrounds, interests and experiences to apply:

July 30 - August 3 - SPARK! Exploration for rising 5th through 8th graders. During the Exploration program, you will learn and hone computer science skills as you work toward creating solutions to real-world problems through a mini-hackathon experience.

July 2 - July 13 - SPARK! Launchpad for rising 9th through 12th graders. During the Launchpad program, you will experience skill-based learning, design challenges, field trips to local tech companies and guest speakers, all geared to help you prepare for next steps in the student-driven learning eco-system of Cville (SPARK! Hackathon, Tom Tom Youth Summit, ReinventeED and i.Lab participation) and beyond.

August 6 - 10 - Bio-Med Tech-Girls for rising 9th through 12th graders. This week-long behind-the-scene immersion program for high school girls is a collaboration between UVA BME, STAB and the i.Lab.